Educational Criticism
Employing
Elliot Eisner's educational criticism, "ed crit", (1979. 1985,
&1994) approach, I will study the flipped learning model from the perspective
of a connoisseur and offer a critical appraisal. In particular I look
critically at the intended, the operational, and the received learning spaces
within flipped learning models. As the connoisseur, I offer insights from
my own experiences with the flipped learning model over the last semester as
well as through the lens of an interview with Jerry Overmyer, a college
professor presently employing the flipped model as an instruction
strategy, and a video where Aaron Sams, the Flipped Classroom co-creator, is featured in promotion of flipped learning. Overmyer is the creator of the
FlippedLearning Network, and he is presently
studying the flipped learning model as a focus of his doctoral dissertation (Overmyer, 2012). I currently use the flipped model in two of
my high school courses, US history and world geography.
PERCEPTUAL Explorations about Flipped Learning
By taking an ed crit approach I hope to tap into a perceptual understanding about flipped learning. According to Eisner connoisseurship helps perceptual exploration:
As one learns how to look at educational phenomena, as one ceases using stock
responses to educational situations and develops habits of perceptual exploration, the
ability to experience qualities and their relationships increases. This phenomenon
occurs in virtually in every area in which connoisseurship has developed. The orchard
grower learns to look orchards in a way that expands his or her perceptions of their
qualities. The makers of cabinets pay attention to the finish, to types of wood and grains,
to forms of joining, to the edges. The football fan learns how to look at plays defense
patterns, and game strategies. Once one develops a perceptual foothold in an arena of
activity- orchard growing, cabinet making or football watching- the skills used in that
arena build on themselves for other objects and events within that arena (1994, p. 242).
So too, I hope these explorations can be used to develop a perceptual foothold in the arena of flipped learning, in order that we might anticipate how flipped learning could be applied to new circumstances.
As one learns how to look at educational phenomena, as one ceases using stock
responses to educational situations and develops habits of perceptual exploration, the
ability to experience qualities and their relationships increases. This phenomenon
occurs in virtually in every area in which connoisseurship has developed. The orchard
grower learns to look orchards in a way that expands his or her perceptions of their
qualities. The makers of cabinets pay attention to the finish, to types of wood and grains,
to forms of joining, to the edges. The football fan learns how to look at plays defense
patterns, and game strategies. Once one develops a perceptual foothold in an arena of
activity- orchard growing, cabinet making or football watching- the skills used in that
arena build on themselves for other objects and events within that arena (1994, p. 242).
So too, I hope these explorations can be used to develop a perceptual foothold in the arena of flipped learning, in order that we might anticipate how flipped learning could be applied to new circumstances.